Going Home

(Day 131, Lyon)

So this is it. The End. I’m sitting in the Lyon Saint-Exupery airport (a thousand hours before my flight, better safe than sorry), and I’m on my way home. I honestly began my trek home at 6:45 this morning when I left the apartment in Grenoble to take the train here, and it’s not going to end until 5:30pm Boston time when I arrive. That’s 11:30pm French time, so I’ll have been traveling for quite some time, but I’m excited. As I was sitting in the train, I was watching the French countryside (literally) pass by my window, and it hit me for real that I’m going to miss France and my life here. I have always known that I would miss all of the food, I’m planning on cramming as much as my stomach can handle into my mouth before I officially leave France, but I’m going to miss my friends, the walk to the tram, the mountains that surround the city, the Bubbles going up to the Bastille, the crazily well trained dogs, watching movies at the theater with French subtitles, opening the curtains every morning to the view out my window.

That’s not to say that I there aren’t things I’m looking to get away from: having a room that looks uninhabited, feeling confined to one room in the apartment, being completely understood by the people around me, not wearing the same 5 pieces of clothing.

So I enjoy employing hyperbole in my daily life. Sue me. There are also things that I wish had been different. I wish I would have been in classes with French students, or at least native French speakers, I could have had even more time (and money) to travel to see my friend in Germany or go to Eastern Europe, I would have gone and seen more movies in French, or I could have tried foie gras and frog legs. Oh, wait. Not that last one. Quick turned me off foie gras for the rest of my life.

Eww. But over all, this has been such a wonderful decision, and not one I would ever take back. I’ve made amazing friends here from all over the country, I was exposed to the beauty that is kinder chocolate, and I have had an opportunity that not many people get the opportunity to do and live the French life. Thank you so much to my family for making this possible, to my friends for making this amazing, and to France for being so absolutely fantastic.

Au revoir et à bientôt.

On the Horizon

(Day 126, Grenoble)

I can see the end. It's a little too close for comfort, yet also too far. I have very mixed emotions about coming home. As can only be expected. I love France, I really do. I love the food, the culture, the style of life, the language. I'll miss my friends, the apartment, speaking French, the food. Honestly, the food is to die for. But I'm excited to go home too. I'm excited to see my dog, my house, my family, Dunkin' Donuts. I miss driving, my friends, and my school. I'm so excited for this summer, but I'm not ready to leave this all behind yet. I leave Friday morning: a train from Grenoble to Lyon, then a flight from Lyon to Paris, Paris to Boston. I'm excited about the traveling (I sincerely enjoy planes and trains), but I'm going to miss being so close to all these different cultures. Luckily I have my last two finals to keep me busy. Wednesday and Thursday morning. So fortunate, right? Also, I've found my second favorite flavor of macaron this week at Paul's in Grenoble (One Tribe, One Family), called Pomme d'Amour, Apple of Love, only behind all of the flavors at Laudree. I'm hoping to stuff as much French food as I can in my face in these 5(!!!) days I have left. I'm so sorry I have no new photos for you all, but I did overload it last time, so take a browse over the other pictures that I've posted throughout the semester and reminisce with me.

How are we all?

(Day 112, Grenoble)

I notice it's been a while again. I had a plan to bring my computer to Italy with me, but I decided I didn't want to lug it around on my back through Europe and left it in Grenoble. So I'm sorry I didn't post last week. As for the week before... I forgot. Oh man, while I've been counting the days I've been here for, I've also been counting how many are left. As that number has been shrinking and shrinking I've had significantly more to do here. From exams to traveling, I've been rather busy, but I'll do my best to recount the past... 20 days. (Procrastination as a way of life is not always the best choice, if I may so so hypocritically.)

So Switzerland and Easter, yeah? Let's check the handy calendar, shall we?

I seem to have had a test for my techniques class on the 9th, which sounds exciting. That wednesday we went to a local museum in Grenoble instead of actually having my language and culture class. Went to the crypts of Saint-Laurent which were really cool. We got a guided tour from the city center to and through the museum by a man who works for the university I'm studying at. I learned a lot about the history of Grenoble, which has been around for ever. Going to William & Mary and being from Boston I feel as if I've got a large knowledge of old America, but Europe really takes the cake. This city has been around since the Romans were in power. I know I've been to Rome and I understand the history of this area, but to be reminded of how old this place I've been living in for the past 112 days is wicked old is sort of mind-blowing. The crypt has graves dating back to the origins of the city as well which is so crazy! Okay, enough on that.

So that weekend we went to Orange, Nice and Éze. More ancient Rome in Orange. They have this great ancient Roman theater that has been pretty well preserved considering it's been around since the 1st century AD.

We only stopped in Orange on the way to Nice for lunch. Nice was AMAZING. It was so refreshing to be warm, for the first time in forever. We went to see a monastery on one of the hills around Nice and the Matisse museum. We also walked around the Old city which looks strikingly like Italy. A nice warm up for the week to come. Pictures of course, I got it.

Ancient, look what our theme seems to be.

On the way back, we stopped at Éze, a medieval city in the south of France. Once again very cool. It's on the top of a mountain and it is so very cool. I don't know if you can tell that I'm already running out of synonyms, haha.

I can't describe to you how nice it was to be near the water. It truly felt like summer. I'm very ready for summer. But doesn't it always get this way at this time of the year?

Let's get back to the schedule then. Movie night, we went to see a French film with my study abroad program. Then Italy! Nicole, Claire, Aubrey, and I went to Venice and Cinque Terre. Mostly because we wanted to go to Italy and I hadn't been to those two places! Venice was amazing. We saw the Basilica of St. Mark and tons of other churches around the city, the Rialto bridge, several museums including the Guggenheim, we took a gondala ride, and I celebrated my 21st birthday in Venice. We walked all over the city and rented an apartment in the city as opposed to staying in a hostel or hotel. We were right next to St. Mark's Basilica which made visiting things really convenient and was awesome. Venice isn't as big though as say Rome, so we only spent 4 days there before leaving on Monday for Cinque Terre. 

Cinque Terre was so cool. It's comprised of these 5 small villages on the coast. You can hike from village to village, which we did (Physical activity! Me!), and each village is  different from the other. with its own identity. I totally suggest visiting! We rented a room in Vernazza and had some of my favorite gelato ever in Italy, which is saying a lot, because I'm now an expert. This is a point where I would like to apologize to everyone. I bought you all souvenirs of gelato, but I ate them all... although I'm not particularly sorry, they were delicious.

Oops. Over exuberant about these Cinque Terre pictures. It was just so incredibly beautiful.

So that you guys caught up. Mentally speaking I'm 50/50 about coming home. I'm excited to use a real shower and wear clothes that feel clean again, but I'm going to miss being able to walk 4 seconds to a café and fabulous pastries and speak French first. I know that's weird and I revel in the moments when I get to speak to native English speakers, but I do enjoy speaking French with people. It's definitely the best way to improve your language skills and I'm going to miss actively improving it without having to seek it out. Mostly I've been sad about leaving Europe, until last Monday and the marathon bombings in Boston. My dad was running the marathon and I had been following his progress all afternoon online. For some reason he had passed the 40k mark and for an hour it never showed that he finished. I had been watching a movie on my computer and went to check Facebook before starting a new one when I read my newsfeed saying different variations of "Pray for Boston". Pray for Boston? I mean it's an awesome city and I'm the first to admit that, but what are we praying for? It was people who I know that go to Boston universities and who were from the area, but I got concerned when a girl I know from Canada updated her status. So I did what we all do now-a-days, I googled it. Suddenly my computer screen was filled with these news articles about bombs at the finish line from an hour previously. I couldn't read fast enough. I went back to the BAA website to check my dad's time but he still hadn't crossed and I kept reading. I didn't know what to do. I was freaking out in my room all the way in France and all I wanted were my parents. I called my mom, but she didn't pick up. I took this 3 ways: 1, something bad happened; 2, everything's fine and she didn't pick up her phone; 3, she took up her usual post of super-mom and was at the medical tent helping out as she would. So I called my dad. Instead of actually hearing his voicemail box I heard some automated voice breaking up over the line. This did not help my mental breakdown. Suddenly I got a Skype call from my cousin who reported that my parents were fine. My dad was fine but lost in the city because they're closing down all of the streets and my mom is in the city trying to find him. When I finally got to talk to my dad two hours later, they are calling me on Skype from the car, that's how scared I sounded on the voicemail I left my mom, haha. My dad's biggest complaint about the whole issue, I'm sure to calm me down, was that he was running too slowly for his liking. I told him that was probably forgiven seeing as his foot hurt and bombs went off. For the rest of the week, I was sort of out of it, and I still kind of am. You see these things on the news happening elsewhere, and you visit Ground Zero in New York, but it still is jarring to me that it would happen in my city. I wasn't even there, but I was floored. I know people who were there, I'm related to them! The best part though, was the response. I know my city wouldn't have responded in any other way. Even shutting down the city to track the suspects down was not unexpected. And I'm so proud of the people that were there and responded right away. I miss Boston and I'm so happy to go back to such a wonderful city in 19 days. Boston Strong.

Switzerland for Easter!

(Day 92, Grenoble)

Here is my politically neutral post for you all!

Once upon a time, there was a student at Northeastern University named Brenda who was part of the co-op program. One semester she decided to take full advantage of this program and work on site at a hospital in Heidelberg, Germany.

There she got to meet many awesome people and make friendships that would last her a life time. One of her best friends while in Germany was a woman named Dagmar. After Dagmar and Brenda had both gotten married to their respective husbands, they both had their first child within a month of each other. Dagmar's daughter, Saskia, was born in March, while Brenda's, Kaitlin, was born in April. As the two girls got older the mothers thought they would be good pen pals. The two girls wrote to each other regularly with their mothers translating the letters to and from German for their daughters. One day, the two friends were finally able to see each other again when Brenda and her family traveled to Europe. The two families vacationed together in London, and an idea was hatched in each of the families heads. This idea came to fruition when Saskia came to live with Brenda and her family a few years later and study at the same school as Kaitlin. Ever since, Kaitlin and Saskia have been very good friends, so much so that for Kaitlin's 18th birthday, her parents gave her a trip to Germany to spend a week with Saskia and her family. 

Another friend of Brenda's was a man named Gerold. The two of them didn't keep in touch as regularly as Dagmar and Brenda did. However, when Brenda was gifted a trip to Germany by her family for the Christmas of 2011, she thought to get in contact with Gerold and try to meet up with him and his family while she was in the area. Gerold had met a wonderful woman named Yolanda and the two of them and their children lived in Baden, Switzerland together.

When Kaitlin, Brenda's daughter, decided to study abroad in the French alps in the spring semester of 2013, Brenda thought to contact Gerold and his family to see if they would have Kaitlin over for a weekend. 

Okay, this is starting to bug me, so it must be getting to you. Surprise! My full name is Kaitlin! And Brenda is my mom too. Typically, the Kaitlin thing is more surprising to people, so I thought I would just drop that in there for good measure. So yeah, for Easter weekend I took a train (well 3) to Baden to stay with the Möhrs for the weekend, and it was one of the best weekends I've had here in Europe. On the Friday, we went to Basel which is right on the boarder with both France and Germany. We did this cool scavenger hunt/walking tour of Basel using this program called Foxtrail. It was really cool and took us to parts of the city we probably wouldn't have seen otherwise. Saturday, the daughter of the family, Leana and I walked around Baden and I helped her with her homework. Yes this is worth mentioning, because I haven't gotten to be the big sister that helps with homework in forever (possibly ever, sorry Maggie) and it was so wonderful and refreshing. Sunday was Easter, and we went to Yolanda's sister's for Brunch. We did what I called an Egg fight. Explanation: so you know how for Easter you hard boil eggs and color them. In my house that's usually the last step. They're a sort of decoration for the few days around Easter and then they're thrown away. In Switzerland they eat them on Easter, but not before having some fun with them. 

You hit eggs against other people at the table and whomever's egg doesn't crack after the encounter wins and moves on to the next person. This keeps going until there is one egg left and they are crowned the winner. Then you dig in and have some tasty eggs for Easter. We also hid chocolate eggs (and chocolate bunnies) around the house (it was snowing) which is something I haven't done for years (mostly because my most recent Easters have been in college). After brunch, we walked around Zurich and stopped at a very fancy cafe, Cafe Felix, where I got to have hot chocolate legally for the first time since lent finished.

(http://www.cafefelix.ch)

Sunday night we Skyped with my family. My whole family. My grandmother, uncles, aunt, cousins, parents, sister and exchange student. It was a lot for me to take in, I can only imagine what it was like for the Möhrs! Monday I trained it back to Grenoble. It was a fabulous weekend, and I'm excited for Leana who is going to stay with my aunt Denise's family this coming fall and study at the same school as my cousin. Hopefully the Möhrs will be able to come visit us all in the US!

Other than that, my week has been pretty relaxed. This Friday, however, my study abroad program is bringing us to the south of France to go to Nice. I'm wicked excited and the weather better be spectacular, because I'm ready for it to be spring now! I hope you all had a wonderful Easter, and if you don't celebrate Easter, I hope you at least got to eat some of the candy of the season!

We're getting real.

(Day 92, Grenoble)

Warning: What you are about to read is a blog post that directly correlates to my political and social opinions. Do not take this as me shoving my opinions down your throat. If you would rather skip this politically charged post, feel free! One thing I learned from 7 years in a right-leaning school is that it can be very difficult and uncomfortable when people are throwing their political and social views in your face, especially when you don't agree with them. It has guided me in my life to not hide my views, but be more open-minded and accepting of others' (I hope). As such, if you would rather not read this post, that's fine! I don't take any offense to it. In fact, I'll make a second post of happiness and travels for those that would rather not read this one. Donc, let's get this show on the road.

These past few months, in the US and France alike, people have been discussing the implications one's sexuality has in the rights given to them. In the US it's been about gay marriage, and in France it has been about gay marriage and adoption by gays. This is where things begin to diverge, because while America has had enthusiastic protests in favor of gay marriage, the French have been storming Paris, monthly it seems, protesting against marriage for all. This came as sort of a shock for myself and my American co-travelers here in France. On the first weekend we arrived in Grenoble, many families left to go to Paris and join in on the protests. While we know that us mostly liberal, college-aged girls were in favor of marriage equality, it came as a surprise to find out that the French, a stereotypically loved-up nation with stereotypically blasé citizens who, in theory, shouldn't care who you love were so emphatically against gay marriage. Further proof that stereotypes should not be the basis of your knowledge on anything! Do your research! I knew that France was a Catholic country, but even many of my Catholic friends back in America are for gay marriage. It was surprising to me that France wasn't jumping on the bandwagon, but then again, when have the French ever done what everyone else has?

I've been willing to accept this as a facet of the French people, keeping my mind open and understanding that not everyone sees things the way I do and I've been listening to their sides of the argument (through my friends). While it's not a topic I've discussed at the dinner table with my host family, who has not left me in Grenoble to protest in Paris, most of my friend's families have been very open about it with my friends. Many people aren't against the marriage equality, but rather giving gay people the right to adopt. They believe, as many do in the US, that the best way for kids to be raised is by a mother and a father, not two mothers or two fathers. I understand where they're coming from, as I've sincerely enjoyed my life with a mother and a father, but I also believe that it's not a necessity. Why should the gender of your partner determine whether or not you would make a good parent? I really don't see heterosexuality as a necessity in parenting, but that's just my opinion. The other day, however,  my friend was chatting with her host mother about the issue. The two of them know they have different opinions on the issue, but her host mom was feeling like going in depth on the issue this day. I don't remember exactly what she said about it, but she started pulling out an extremely offensive argument in defense of her opinion against gay marriage. She was talking about how if the government was allowing anyone to get married based on the argument of "being in love", what if someone claims they are in love with their dog, should they be allowed to marry their dog?

Hold up. Did you just equate a human being to a dog? As I remember from many an attempt at a different answer to my inquiry, despite how much I love my dogs, according to the Roman Catholic, dogs to not, in fact, go to heaven. The reason for this being, they are not given free will and a soul and all the good stuff God gave to each and every human being. Just because they also happen to be gay does not mean that they suddenly lose all of these things. Homosexuality does not negate the existence of a soul. Being a dog does. So, in answer to your question, no maybe governments should think twice about allowing citizens to marry their dogs, but they should stand up for their citizens regardless of sexuality and grant everyone the same rights, including marriage. Furthermore, France, haven't you historically had problems with the ties between Church and state? I distinctly remember you having a rather turbulent end to the 18th century and debut of the 19th century as a cause of this.

(http://lefsummerschool.eu/theme-2013/)

Yes, maybe your problems were because God has supposedly chosen the monarchs that had driven your nation to the ground, but still you went through the entire country taking the Church's goods and destroying Churches to install government buildings or hospitals or a metro station. Now you want to bring the religious argument into the debate and allow that to determine your laws? No.  If you would like to have that option, then feel free to vote for a government more closely tied to the Church, by all means! However, while the church and the state are still not one and the same, you cannot use religious arguments as valid reasons behind laws. Unless you also take into account the beliefs of all citizens including Muslims, Jews, Hindus, etc. as well, your government is not required to make your religious beliefs law.

Don't think you're getting out of this easily, America. The same argument applies to you, even more so. While France has historically been a Catholic country, going so far as to being half of the Great Schism with the Avignon Papacy, an active member of the Crusades, and a prominent part of the Holy Roman Empire, we have none of that. We were a country founded on the idea of religious freedom, being a safe haven for people of any religious belief to practice it without persecution. Yes, sometimes that's been a challenge for us.

(http://unconfirmedbreakingnews.com/2013/01/breaking-news-1763/)

I'm talking about you Salem. The 17th century was not your highest point in upholding this belief that the pilgrims were (sort of) aiming for, especially considering the majority of you were descendants of if not pilgrims yourselves. However, we have a bigger population than France and a bigger religious diversity, even when just considering Christianity on its own. I think that means we are held to an even higher standard when it comes to the separation of Church and state. When our melting pot of a nation tries to use religion as an argument, they better double check that this is what every religion practiced in the US believes, because the government I voted for is not one run by religious leaders, rather people looking to bring about a better standard of life for the American people as a whole, including equality for all. Whether you are black or white, gay or straight, female or male, Christian or Islamic, you deserve to be treated equally under the law of the Unites States in my eyes. If this means two men want to get married to each other, they should be allowed to just based on the fact that a man is allowed to get married to a woman. That is reason enough for me. 

I have so much more to say on politically charged topics with regards to France, but maybe I should leave that to another day. So, until then, equality for all always. 

Oops, I did it again...

(Day 80, Grenoble)

Sorry for being slow on the blogging! Sometimes I forget that this isn't my usual life and that I'm not going to be living in France forever and be a stone's throw away from the best food ever. I don't like that that's not the case either. I've got just under 2 months left, and I'm not going to think about this whole leaving thing. Moving on. While I've spoken about my assorted travels through Europe, I haven't spoken much about my travels through France. With my study abroad program, we go on the occasional excursion doing fun things around Grenoble and France.

Just in case you don't know where exactly I'm studying, or where any of these places are that I'm talking about, feel free to consult this hand map on which I have noted where I've been/am going. 

So Grenoble is down in Southwestern France, wicked close to Italy and Switzerland. In our first excursion we took a really quick bus ride (an hour and a half or two hours). Unfortunately, it was cold and snowy and we were given a very strange tour around the city that was over two hours long (everyone knows the best tour is an hour and a half and no longer) and included hitting up a million passageways from street to street and a medieval clothing store. We did see two of their cathedrals, and we got to eat some pretty good food (I don't remember exactly what it was but I remember liking it). Apparently Lyon is the gastronomical capital of France. Just a fun fact. We did have to walk up a rather steep hill/mountain whatever to get to their big cathedral while it was snowing, which put a damper on our day. Luckily, we live so close to Lyon that it could be a very quick day trip, should we choose.  So, pictures, I guess.

We also went to Dijon a few weekends ago. It was a much longer bus ride and we spent the night there. Dijon is the capital of the Burgundy region of France and was the home of the Dukes of Burgundy back in the day. It was a really cute city and definitely still has a bunch of its medieval architecture and that general feel about it. Honestly, that was the morning Erin left and I slept very well in Dijon! However the food there, is impeccable. Honestly, go for it (but I do say that about the entirety of France...). We also went to Beaune the next day to see the Hospice of Beaune, the first hospital in France, and we went to a wine tasting as well. It was a really cute, totally stereotypical French city. So pictures from both!

Look who I found in Dijon!!!

So that's where I've been so far! This weekend is Easter and I'm visiting family friends in Switzerland (woo traveling), and in a few weeks we're headed to Nice for 3 days. We're also in the process of planning our April vacation to Venice and Cinque Terre. While the Italian train system's website is not excited about the trip, we're definitely looking forward to it. I'm sorry that I don't have any hard hitting exposes on any hot topics! I'll work on it and find something that bothers me for next time!

Long time, no blog!

(Day 68, Grenoble)

Oh well hey there! It's been quite some time since I've updated this. In all honesty, I may have forgotten that I was doing this until my friend Erin complained I hadn't written about how amazing she is yet. That combined with the fact that it's Thursday and I have no classes comes out to a brand new blog post!

Last post I may have mentioned that I was going to Barcelona for my February break and then meeting up with a friend in Paris. (If I happened to have forgotten part of my itinerary last time, now you're all caught up.) We left Grenoble on Thursday February 21st and took the train to the Lyon airport where we then flew to Barcelona. Despite the trek across the airport from train station to the terminal for discount airlines, we made it there safe and sound. One thing we managed to not realize could be important was that neither myself, Claire, Nicole, nor Aubrey spoke any Spanish or Catalan. We walked out of the airport (no security or customs to go through which was disappointing for the 'fill the passport up with stamps' collection) and were trying to get into the city center to meet a friend of Aubrey's who is studying in Barcelona for the semester when we realized our French abilities were going to come into no use in Spain. We managed to take the Barcelona equivalent to the RER or the Commuter Rail into the city for dinner on La Rambla. Then we took another RER train to the mountain where our hostel was. That's right, I said mountain. We knew this when we booked the hostel, but the $10/night deal was just too good to pass up, we thought. The pleasant surprise: the 500 steps the hostel website had mentioned from the train station to the hostel was actually just 500 feet up a winding road. The ...interesting surprise: we were not the only species that planned on setting up residence there.

There were wild boar that lived on the mountain, as well as assorted wild cats and foxes. ... I was unaware that I would be reliving the assorted African safari's I went on daily during this trip. It wasn't bad, we only saw them a few times (once, one thought Claire and I smelled mighty tasty, but Texas arrived to save our souls), and the other animals didn't make that much of a fuss. Plus, we figured we'd be spending most of the time not at the hostel anyway. Unfortunately, Nicole and I are not the most raring to go people in the morning so it took us a while, and we were all living under the illusion that it was going to be like vacationing on the equator while we were there. Mother Nature had other plans, however, and on Day 2 we woke up to a beautiful snowy mountain.

(Photo credit: Nicole. Stole it, hope you don't mind!)

I legit thought I was back in the Alps. Why hadn't it occurred to any of us to look at the weather in Barcelona before traveling? I checked the weather in Paris!! Regardless of the ridiculous weather we had a bunch of fun. We went to the Picasso museum; found a favorite part of the city; Claire and Aubrey went to the FC Barcelona v. Seville game; we found an American diner which had delicious burgers and milkshakes where we watched the FCB v. Real Madrid game (sad); we saw, and put our feet in, the Mediterranean Sea; 

we saw everything by Gaudi in the city like his three Domas and the Park Guell;

and we saw the main cathedral of Barcelona.

The thing that really took the cake for best part of the trip, though, was the Sagrada Familia. This is another major church in Barcelona, but tends the be the one people identify with the city. While that's unfortunate for the city's actual cathedral, I totally understand why. This thing looks absolutely crazy from the outside.

It has spider legs and looks like it should be the cathedral of Atlantis. It his seashells and lizards, cubic statues of Jesus and other religious figures, brightly colored latin worlds written willy-nilly every where.  The major thing about the church is that's it's not even done yet! It's been under construction for over 100 years, been visited by 2 popes, and it's still missing major architectural pieces! Unlike Paris where you can buy one museum pass and get into every museum for a certain number of days, we had to pay to get in everywhere. Also unlike France, the churches were not free in Spain unless there was a mass going on, during which you couldn't access the majority of the church anyway. We used our student discount and after 16 euros (nearly $20) we were in and going up one of the towers. What you have to understand is how amazingly unique this church is. It has all of this crazy architecture on the outside, partially unfinished, partially under construction. And then you go inside...

 ...and your view on life changes. The entire interior of the church is white and every window (once it's done) is a beautiful rainbow of stained-glass. Churches shouldn't be built any other way. This is the perfect church. As crazy as you may be on the outside, God takes over on the inside and makes everything so beautiful. Throughout the day there is always sunlight streaming in from somewhere casting a rainbow onto the white of the church. I think the part that really got me was one of the confessionals.

With confession (as my Catholic education has taught me) you go in with a 'dirty' soul, confess to Christ via the priest, and then come out 'clean'. What could be cooler than coming out of the confessional with a clean soul and then this rainbow shining down on you as if God himself were there thanking you for confessing and wanting to be a better Christian. I stood there for a long time thinking about that, so don't mind me if none of this makes sense. I still can't imagine a better feeling than that. Oh man, my Catholic side is showing. 

That was pretty much all we did in Barcelona. We also ate tapas and paella, but the entire time I was craving French food (particularly les carafes d'eau which are free and beautiful as opposed to the water in Barcelona which you always have to pay for), which is why it was handy I was about to spend 5 days in Paris with my best friend from William & Mary!

On Friday March 1st, I left the hostel  at 7:00am, and hour and a half and 7€50 later I finally made it to the airport where I met a man from Chicago who was going to Paris for a vacation with his wife. I was spotted by my L.L. Bean backpack, très américain évidement. Then I waited in Charles de Gaulle for 3+ hours to see the wonderful, most amazing person in the world Erin! I love my friends here and my French life, and I'm totally not looking forward to leaving here, but I didn't realize how much I missed my ginger comerade until she walked through those automatic doors. We stayed in a hotel (an upgrade definitely needed after life with the boars) in the 11 arrondissement very close to where the Bastille was, which was perfect for us revolution lovers. Over the course of 5 days we saw EVERYTHING. On Friday, after a stroll and dinner along Boulevard Saint-Germain, we walked past both the Notre-Dame and the remains of the Bastille on our way back to our hotel. Day 2 was Notre-Dame for real, Sainte-Chapelle, Musée d'Orsay (where the hunt for Saint Sébastien began), and the Eiffel Tower. I also introduced Erin to Kinder chocolate that day which may or may not have been a very big mistake as I now may as well take some stock in the company as I'm bringing so much of it home for Erin. Day 3 we decided to do some furniture shopping for our future D.C. apartment at Versailles. We saw the palace, the gardens, the Grand Trianon, and the Petit Trianon before our legs gave out. We paused back at our hotel before hitting up the Champs-Élysées and the Arc de Triomphe. I just want to pause here so we can all compare the Arc de Triomphe with that of Barcelona. I'll let you figure out which is which.

All I have to say is "Vive la France". After dinner we also went to see Les Misérables (my 5th time seeing it, sorry I'm not sorry). It really improves the movie when you come out and walk the streets where the real story took place. Honestly, I have so much patriotism for France after that movie, I cannot express to you how weird and wonderful it is. Day 3 we set ourselves up at the Louvre and worked from ancient Egypt all the way to 19th century France. It also took us 5 hours, but we found my favorite ever painting ever (after some serious stalking of every painting by David in the Louvre), "La mort de Marat" or"Marat assassiné".

Now I know I posted other paintings by Jacques-Louis David from the last time I went to the Louvre, but I literally found every single painting of his in that museum and it took us 5 hours to find the painting that added to the fire that was the Terror. I had almost lost hope, thinking that maybe it was in another museum somewhere across the world when I walked down a small set of stairs which opened up into another room (room 54, I do believe), lifted my head, looked to the right, and there it was. I gasped, loud enough that people in other rooms paused their contemplation and glanced my way, and went to stand in front of that painting for a while. No, really.

(Photo credit: Erin)

You may or may not have guessed that I have a thing for the French revolution and this painting gets me every single time. I just, LOOK AT IT! David, what a rascal. Time to get back on track I suppose. Post Louvre, we walked through the underground mall attached to the Louvre and then jetted back to our hotel for another siesta. We decided to be extra American on our final night in Paris and go to the Hard Rock for dinner with a stop over at Laduree on the Champs-Élysée for macaroons (if they're still there when you get the chance to go to Paris, get the Marie Antoinette flavor. Trust me.) to add a smidge of France to our meal. On our last day we treked it to l'Hôtel des Invalides to see Napoleon and then up to Sacre-Coeur because why not.

Not as cool as Sagrada Familia, but I'll take it. We then parted from Paris that night on a train to Grenoble. While I did drag Erin to my History of Contemporary France class, we did go out and about in Grenoble too. We even took the famous bubbles up to the Bastille. The bubbles are the fancy cable cars that lead from Centre-Ville up to the Bastille itself. Much better than walking, in my opinion, although I know that not many others would agree. The walk is pretty cool. I also took some of my first pictures of Grenoble. Now here is my reasoning. For the past 2 months, it has been cold, rainy, occasionally snowy, and very cloudy. Once or twice it has been nice, but I don't carry my camera with me all the time. I did, however, this time, so take a minute to appreciate the city I'm living and studying in. (I'll even add pictures from my hike up the mountain.)

(Photo credit: Nicole)

(Photo credit: Nicole)

(Photo credit: Nicole)

(Proof I exercised!)

After our bubble rides, we went to the Musée de Grenoble which is actually a pretty cool museum. They even have a Saint Sébastien painting, a painting by David, and a piece from Andy Warhol.

They also had some stuff that Erin and I had a tough time accepting was art. This piece, for example.

Now it is entirely possible I just don't get it. I am not an art student by any means, but it kind of looks like they just forgot what they wanted to do on this canvas and gave it to a museum anyway. But I digress. Thursday we had a final French dinner for Erin with savory crêpes and crème brûlée, and then she left by a 7:20 train on Friday morning.

It was an absolutely crazy two weeks, but totally worth it. Barcelona is an amazing city, and I could get lost in the corners of Paris and still be loving it. It was so, ridiculously nice to spend time with Erin too. My friends even noticed it here when we all went out for Indian food and crêpes that I was significantly more cheerful than usual. But I guess that's what William & Mary gives you. I mean, one Tribe, one family, right TJ?

(Photo credit: Erin)